As someone who is totally blind, every day presents its own little challenges. But the biggest issue I ever have to face is travelling on public transport

Georgia Collins explains how being a blind commuter can have its problems

Student journalist Georgia Collins spent at week at the Reading Post last week, gaining some work experience.

But she also had a different sort of experience on her bus journey into the office one day.

Here she explains how being a blind commuter can have its problems

As someone who is totally blind, every day presents its own little challenges. But the biggest issue I ever have to face is travelling on public transport.

With more than 58 per cent of buses in Reading audibly announcing stop information, you could be lulled into thinking that it’s a breeze travelling from place to place.

However, when there isn’t talking information to rely on, it’s back to the good old fashioned way of asking a driver.

On Thursday, July 3, I found out first hand just how unreliable this method really can be.

Whilst riding on the number 24 bus, I approached the driver and asked him whether he could “give me a shout when we get to The Moderation [pub]”.

Usually in this situation I’ll roughly estimate how long it should take me to get to my destination.

As is often the case on buses I’ll go into my own little world, looking on my phone, reading emails, and nosing on Facebook. It suddenly occurred to me that we seemed to have been travelling an awfully long time.

Failing to locate the bell, I had to wait until another passenger was getting off the bus before I could talk to the driver.It was at this point that I found out that he had driven straight past my stop, as he had forgotten to let me know.

He admitted that he wasn’t going to tell me this vital piece of information until we had made a loop around Caversham and returned to The Moderation.

In a previous interview, chief executive of Reading Buses, James Freeman said: “What we expect drivers to do is to establish from customers what stop or particular place they’re getting off at. I would always say listen to announcements, and I will try and second guess that and make sure you’re moving at the right stop.”

He added: “If there is no voice announcements clearly we expect drivers to note that.”

On this occasion, not only was I not made aware about my stop, but the talking system wasn’t switched on.

Guide Dogs for the Blind Association is currently campaigning for there to be more talking buses travelling on our roads, however is it more education for drivers that we need?

When told of this incident, Mr Freeman said: “That’s really unfortunate, completely unsatisfactory, very demeaning, and something I’m very sad to hear.

“From our point of view it is something to learn from and it will be under investigation.”

I think I may have been particularly unlucky that day – when the driver forgot my stop again on my way home. Fortunately the driver was much more helpful this time, and even stopped the bus to walk me back to a point that I was familiar with.